"Pretty Crazy Green 9 Patch"

I had such a great time demo-ing my "Pretty Crazy" pattern at Fabric Depot last Saturday!  Lots of really nice people came by, and it was so easy to show them how the pattern works.  Response was good!

Marge, one of the ladies who works there, liked the block I was using to demonstrate with, all in green.  It got me thinking after I got home that I really should make another one of these while I'm in the mood, especially after I sent off the Renaissance 9 Patch and miss it!

And just to show how fast this can come together, I will honestly state that I did the fabric lay-out in one 4 hour session, and the trim/pinning in a 6 hour session.  Fast and furiously fun....the sewing will be another 3 hours or so, finishing maybe 1 1/2, so the whole thing should come in at 15 hours.  Not bad...  ;-)

Yes, I used the old blogger's trick of standing on a step stool to get this overhead shot.  It's a nice sturdy stool.

The fun part of this process is that the whole thing is laid out at once, so you can keep the composition balanced as you go.  The fabric pieces are just laying on top of the foundation muslin squares at this point. So much for phase one...

When it was time to add the trim, I found that once in awhile I had to iron under the edge of the patch before laying the trim over it--this was when I was using lace, or the trim was really narrow.

I wanted those edges to stay flat once I pressed them, so I painted them first with a little starch/water solution.  It worked wonders.

Here is one of the 9 blocks, all pinned up.  There are lots of different manufacturers represented here, including Simplicity's ombre flower trim, and Mokuba's ready made black passementerie.

And another block....

Little bits from here and there in my stash all came out to play, including some old printed quilter's cottons that I've had for well over a decade...

The overall view is now at this stage...

I might have to tweak it so there is one more largish pink shape in the upper right (reduced views make problem areas pop right out).  Click on it to see it better....and come on back next week when it will be done!